THE JEWEL

So I need another neo-prog band to check out as the recommendation for Unitopia largely didn't cut the genre tag. To keep things organized, I often go back to the debut of a band I check out and work my way through their catalog. In this case, it's Pendragon, one I've been curious about since I started getting into neo-prog for the second time in the twelve years I've been "albuming." So, starting with The Jewel.

Because I wanted this study to be as historically accurate as possible, I went with the original 1985 tracklist. I was certainly not surprised by the synth-driven AOR of the opener, Higher Circles, but it was ultimately too short to develop itself properly, even as an AOR song, and it made me worry that the neo-prog tag on this debut was an inaccuracy by fans. Thankfully, The Pleasure of Hope immediately fit that bill that's been heavily mapped out in my mind by Marillion and IQ. This track did a good job maintaining itself as a prog song for the short runtime, but I still found myself wishing it was longer. Now a six-minute song like Leviathan, that was much more like it. Rhythmically, the song succeeded in all the areas Higher Circles failed. Of course, this also tells me that it was a bad choice to introduce the album with Higher Circles, which doesn't really set a proper standard for the rest of the album to follow.

So it seems that the rest of the album shows the band continuing to follow it up with the standard set by The Pleasure of Hope, the second track, especially where the epics like Circus are concerned. In fact, after the second, epics are all that's left. So technically, the entire second half follows in the vein of track three, Leviathan, which itself was an expansion on the prog sound driven by The Pleasure of Hope. I was expecting at least one more AOR song, but in the end, this debut's greatest flaw is that the opener is extraordinarily out of place. If I had to pick a favorite track, I suppose I'd choose Circus because it's glittering synths make it sound more magical. I guess that seems easier to decide when the next track, Oh Divineo, is much less interesting than Circus, as well as the ten minute Black Knight which still manages to be a better experience than the previous track, but is much more standard of an epic than Circus.

For the most part, this is what I picture neo-prog actually HAVING to sound like. Since this debut came out in the very early stages of the genre, I wouldn't consider calling this "generic neo-prog," especially since Marillion, IMO, had trouble balancing out the prog rock wi.th the pop rock in that vein. But as far as songwriting goes, it mostly sets the standard for a good album to follow without every breaking real ground.

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